Market Closes Mostly Lower a Day Before the Fed’s Statement

By The Associated Press

March 17, 2015

The guessing game over higher interest rates is making for a jerky stock market.

A day after their biggest gain in six weeks, two out of the three major United States stock indexes fell on Tuesday as oil continued to slide. Investors continued to speculate about when the Federal Reserve would raise a crucial borrowing rate. Low rates have helped stocks soar over the last six years. The Fed kicked off a two-day meeting on Tuesday to discuss rates, and it will release a policy statement on Wednesday.

Losses were small but spread across industries. Nine of the 10 sectors of the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index dropped, led by a 1.2 percent fall in raw-material companies.

Randall Warren, chief investment officer of Warren Financial Service, said he was not worried about higher rates but was bracing for more price swings nonetheless.

“The economy is stronger and can handle it, and people will realize that,” he said. “But now we’re in the fear phase.”

The S.&P. 500 fell 6.91 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,074.28. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 128.34 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 17,849.08. The Dow rose 228 the day before. The Nasdaq composite index edged up 7.93 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,937.43.

Energy stocks sank as the price of oil slid for the sixth consecutive day to another six-year low. United States benchmark crude fell 42 cents to close at $43.46 a barrel in New York.

In the statement to be released on Wednesday, the Fed is widely expected to drop the word “patient” in describing how long it will wait to raise rates. Many economists think that will signal that the Fed will make its first move in June. Others, though, predict that the central bank will wait until next year.

Mixed signals on the economy have been adding to the uncertainty. United States employers have added more than 200,000 jobs in each of the last 12 months, and the unemployment rate has fallen to 5.5 percent. That is the lowest rate in seven years. On the downside, a report on Monday showed that output at the nation’s factories fell for a third consecutive month in February.

“We keep getting good economic information, then bad economic information,” said Aaron Jett, an equity strategist at Bel Air Investment Advisors. “There’s no conviction about what the Fed will do.”

On Tuesday, the Commerce Department said construction of new homes fell 17 percent in February from January, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 897,000. Bad winter weather in Northeast and Midwest was mostly to blame.

In other stocks making moves, Apple rose $2.09, or 1.7 percent, to $127.04 after The Wall Street Journal reported that the company was in talks with programmers to include TV networks in an online television service.

Weight Watchers International sank 20 cents, or 2 percent, to $9.93 after Credit Suisse downgraded its rating on the stock. The bank said the company faced tough competition from free and lower-cost weight-loss alternatives.

American Airlines jumped $3.47, or nearly 7 percent, to $53.69 after news that the carrier would join the S.&P. 500 index after the close of trading on Friday.

The euro strengthened to $1.0589 from $1.0574. The dollar fell slightly to 121.34 yen.

In oil markets, Brent crude for May delivery, a benchmark for international oils used by many American refineries, fell 43 cents to close at $53.51 in London.

Gold fell $5, to $1,148.30 an ounce.

United States government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.05 percent from 2.07 percent on Monday. The price rose 6/32, to 99 17/32, from 99 11/32.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B2 of the New York edition with the headline: Shares Mixed After Monday’s Rally as Investors Wait for Word From Fed. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe